Ravens former All-Pro finally feels more like himself after years of missing games, battling through injuries

Baltimore Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley missed four games last season, and even in his return, he said he didn’t feel 100% all season. The last four seasons, he has been plagued by injury, playing just six games in 2020, one game in 2021, 11 games in 2022 and 13 games last year.

The knee, ankle and shoulder injuries that kept him off the field for parts of the last four years resulted in him taking a pay cut, saying he wanted to stay in Baltimore to prove himself while healthy. His base salary went from $11 million to $3 million, and he will be a free agent one year earlier after making 2025 a void year.

Even when he was on the field, the issues that lingered from the injuries impact his play, and he was not ready to leave the Ravens while “not playing to [his] capability.”

Heading into the 2024 season, he says he’s “been feeling more like myself than I have in previous years.”

“For the most part, just to be able to feel like myself physically has made me a lot happier,” Stanley said, via the New York Times. “I guess being in that state when I was younger, it wasn’t as savory as a moment or savory as a time, just knowing that, ‘OK, your career could have been over after one play’ and not knowing if I was ever going to feel like that again physically or athletically. To truly feel like that and be out there and just notice myself getting better every day and feeling more like my old self every day, it definitely makes me happy.”

While Stanley said he tried not to let the on-field struggles linger off the field, he admitted that his game day performance sticks with him even when the clock hits all zeroes.

“To be able to perform at the standard I know I can perform at, it just makes me feel more at ease and confident in what I’m doing and that I’m going in the right direction,” Stanley said, which is something he is hopeful he can do this year.

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ravens-former-all-pro-finally-feels-more-like-himself-after-years-of-missing-games-battling-through-injuries/

Author : Shanna McCarriston

Publish date : 2024-06-27 18:32:57

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